Mind Games
by Five Minutes Til Bedtime
Summary: The Doctor's Wife Missing Scene  We saw what the House showed Amy, but what was Rory doing on the other side of the door?


Title: **Mind Games**

Summary: [The Doctor's Wife Missing Scene] We saw what the House showed Amy, but what was Rory doing on the other side of the door?

Fan Dom: Doctor Who

Word Count: 1,132

* * *

><p>The wall slammed shut between them. Rory heard the whoosh of the air, the crank of the gears, and then nothing – silence.<p>

Amy was gone.

He pounded uselessly against the solid metal door. Punched, kicked, clawed, but for all his strength there was no result. Time passed. It could have been second, hours, even days – Rory wasn't certain – when his mind finally caught up to his body, reigned in the awful screaming panic inside his head, and stilled his fists.

Training kicked in. All those years, locked carefully away behind a door in his mind, began to leak out. _Calm down_, a voice told him. It was his own – only different. Stronger.

Deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out.

Good.

Pushing his body away from the door it slumped on, Rory turned around. He raised his eyes to the ceiling, but the action felt too much like praying so he dropped them to the floor. The ground, where evil lay, where the House lurked.

"Give her back," he said. His voice was calm, even threatening; so very different from the pure chaos in his head.

At first there was no answer, but Rory could feel the House's attention on him as though he was staring right into its eyes. He imagined how far deep he could have to dig, where he would have to go, to find the soft, squishy living part the Doctor had talked about when they first landed. In his mind, he could feel it cowering at his feet, pleading with him as he raised his sword and –

"**Interesting,"** the House finally said, its baritone voice coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. Fleetingly Rory wondered how it had gotten a voice like that – or if it had stolen it, sucked it out of some doomed Timelord like any other piece of flesh.

The nurse inside him said it was impossible, the rest of him wasn't so sure.

"**You are different,"** the House continued. **"What did you just do?"**

"Give me back my wife or you'll see just how different I am," Rory growled. His hands clenched unconsciously, missing the weight of his missing sword.

The House laughed, the sound vibrating through the metal corridor, raising the hair on the back of Rory's neck. **"Yes, very different. Spare me your empty threats, human, you are of no danger to one such as me."**

That was true. Rory was bluffing. Yet, even as he acknowledge this a feeling deep in his bones told him that no matter how empty his words were, if the House had hurt Amy, Rory would find a way to kill it.

"Try me," he said simply. For a pause the House was silent.

"**I grow bored of these useless words. Now tell me, little human, why are you different?"**

"You have my wife," Rory responded. His jaw worked, his anger brewing just below the surface. "We _humans _can be very angry when you take what doesn't belong to you."

"**Ah, so it is a primitive gesture. Aunt and Uncle were like that once too, before I sculpted the human out of them. Still, they were entertaining at least."**

"Only something without a heart would take something like love and call it primitive," Rory snarled quickly. Why was he still arguing with this thing? Why was he letting it get underneath his skin? Ah, yes, because it could kill he and Amy in a heartbeat if it wanted to. Bloody beast.

"**You seem to be in the belief that a heart is something to be desired. It is not. That is why I am the superior being while you, your wife, and your ridiculous Timelord friend are the ones who will die at my mercy. You begin to bore me. Perhaps I should just kill your friends now, see how you respond to that."**

Inside, Rory's heart stopped. Outside, he roared. "You will not touch them. If you touch them, I will kill you. If you harm one hair on either of their heads, I will kill you. Are you listening to me House? I will kill you if you touch them! You will sign your own death sentence!"

"**I grow tired of your pointless threats. I will kill you all when it pleases me. You are nothing but a fleck of dust I have yet to swipe from my sleeve. A powerless, insignificant thing."**

"I will take you down from the inside out. I will destroy you," Rory vowed.

"**You are nothing but a talking ape. There is nothing you can do."**

"You have no idea what I am capable of."

It was not a bluff. It was not even a threat. It was the truth, and it echoed off the metal walls like something greater than itself. The House seemed to sense its power for it was quiet for a moment.

"**There it is again. That change. What _are _you?"**

And here it was. The opening, the chance Rory had been waiting for. The House, for all it's power, was a secluded hermit crouching on the top of a mountain, too busy with his little bit of earth to look upwards and see the sky. It was intelligent, but it's knowledge was limited to the small bit of rock it had been hiding on. It simply didn't _know._

Which suited Rory just fine.

"If you really want to know, keep talking to me. Keep me here, separated from my wife and the Doctor and see just how long it takes before I show you the truth. Let's see just how well you stack up against me – an unknown. You don't even know what I am, do you? You have no idea what I could do to you."

Rory paused, the House was silent. Good, it was listening.

"Or, you can give me back my wife. You can _open this door _and let me leave. It all depends on you. You can have me, the unknown, or Rory Williams, the human. Make your choice – now! My patience dwindles."

And there it was. All of Rory's cards were played. If the House didn't buy this, he would have to make a run for it, trying to find Amy himself. It had to work. If it didn't -

With a whoosh, the door behind him opened. Suddenly, Rory could hear the sound of Amy crying, her desperate sobs of his name mixed with "no" and "please God" assaulted him. He could have paused, made one last threat, left one more seed of doubt, but the door in his mind was quickly closing and all he could think was _Amy, Amy, Amy. _

He turned and ran. He felt the House's eyes on him and he still ran. Amy needed him. Amy was crying.

The House was playing mind games.


End file.
